When I was in preschool in New Jersey my parents brought me to a week-long summer program run by the local police department called "Safety Town."

The camp took place behind the township library in a miniature town, complete with shed-like houses, paved roads, traffic lights, sidewalks, cross walks and of course, the token 1980s kid-sized battery operated cars.

The object of the program was to teach us basic traffic and pedestrian laws but the cool part was cruising down the micro-highways of Safety Town in my pink, plastic Barbie corvette, just like a real grown-up.

The day I arrived in State College, I had a strange case of déja vù. I was here a few days before I realized that I was once again in Safety Town, albeit a much larger version.

In many ways, Penn State University is a microcosm of the real world. All the elements seem to be here: a lively downtown area, fast food chains, apartment complexes and even 24-hour banking.

Within the university, the various academic departments represent the diversity of careers available in the real world. We have scientists, engineers, artists, writers, politicians and teachers all training together in one town.

Student organizations and other extracurricular activities, from sports teams to the Undergraduate Student Government, represent other elements of life outside of State College.

In essence, this school, and also this town, is for many students a crash-course in real life. We come here not only to study for our future professions, but also to learn how to survive as functioning adults in the real world.

In the meantime, we have a lot of fun (even if it doesn't come in the form of a pink corvette).

This sort of controlled environment is conducive to learning because it's the perfect atmosphere to make mistakes and learn from them. Just as getting into a traffic accident in Safety Town was never fatal, saying the wrong thing in a USG meeting won't ruin a political career.

At the same time, the cultural bubble that is State College can give students the wrong impression about real life. It's just too comfortable.

A town of about 40,000 college students, many from the same age group and similar family and socioeconomic backgrounds, is far from a true representation of the larger population of the world.

For this reason, students should challenge themselves to move beyond the walls of this campus at some point during their education: study abroad, intern somewhere new or simply travel.

No individual is truly well rounded until he or she has experienced what it feels like to be in a new, sometimes uncomfortable, situation.

After all, we can't all stay in Safety Town forever.